The latest in two stellar and multifaceted comedy careers, The Breaker Upperers marks the first co-directing endeavor between Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami, each a major presence in New Zealand comedy. Produced by the incomparable Taika Waititi, the film had its world premiere at SXSW.
The film follows Jen and Mel, portrayed by Van Beek and Sami respectively, two best friends who own and operate a break-up service. For a fee, anyone seeking a hassle-free escape from a dysfunctional relationship may hire them to do the dirty work for them. Of course, things get a bit challenging when one of them begins to develop feelings for one of their own clients.
I sat down with Van Beek and Sami for a hilarious conversation in which we discussed burgers, the New Zealand comedy scene, and their relationship with Waititi.
Hazem Fahmy for Film Inquiry: Congrats on a phenomenal screening yesterday! It was an incredible turnout, I almost could not get in.
Madeleine Sami: Really?
Yeah, if I hadn’t been left a ticket there’s no way I would have gotten in.
Madeleine Sami: Yeah, Sheri [their publicist] is good like that. She just pops up. The other night, I tried to get into Hereditary and [there] were massive lines. And Sheri’s like: “give me one minute.” And a minute later she’s like: “hop off the line, I’ll be there in two minutes.” And she just pops out with a ticket and leaves. She’s good like that.
Jackie van Beek: Do you have a film here as well? What’s that blue pass?
I wish. It’s a press pass.
Jackie van Beek: I was gonna interview the interviewer about [his] film.
Madeleine Sami: Jackie likes to go and see the films of all the filmmakers she meets. That’s what she was angling for.
Jackie van Beek: I’m like: “what’s your film!” Because there’s always so much, my festival strategy is to just see who I bump into, who I talk to, who I like, and then I just go to their films. Although, we are thinking of seeing Black Panther today. We have not bumped into the director of that film today. I guess I’m breaking strategy today.
Madeleine Sami: I guess you can break strategy [just] today. I’m breaking my diet today, I’m having a big burger later.
Have y’all tried Shake Shack?
Jackie van Beek: No! But we’re going!
Madeleine Sami: I have actually tried Shake Shack in New York. And it was good. I really want Jackie to try it. Ooh! Maybe we should go In-N-Out, actually.
Jackie van Beek: But Shake Shack is just there.
Madeleine Sami: Okay! But you have to do In-N-Out another time. Sorry. We’re probably doing everything except talking about what we should be talking about.
Oh, it’s fine. Y’all can talk about whatever you wanna talk about.
Jackie van Beek: Let’s just spend this interview talking about meat. I don’t normally talk a lot about meat.
But you are in Texas.
Jackie van Beek: Yeah. I don’t miss not eating meat.
Speaking of eating meat, y’all were on What We Do in the Shadows together – is that how you met?
Madeleine Sami: No!
Jackie van Beek: We met like 20 years ago. We’ve been friends for a long time. I mean, purely by living in New Zealand, it’s inevitable we’re gonna know each other. We’re of a similar age, doing a similar thing.
Madeleine Sami: We actually met when we were teenagers, but I don’t remember much of it ’cause I was fourteen. And then we were doing plays at the same time at theaters. I was doing a solo show. Then I kinda tagged on to Jackie’s crew at the time. Bret McKenzie was on that show, and we all just used to hang out and drink and be merry.
Jackie van Beek: Then we got cast in that children’s show together, called Badjelly the Witch.
Madeleine Sami: I was the witch.
Jackie van Beek: I was Mudwiggle the worm who helped get children across the river. A very crucial part. We did a lot of shows together.
Did y’all start in theater?
Jackie van Beek: I only started making films when I was thirty, so I’m quite a latecomer to film, in terms of as a writer-director. And so in the last eleven years I’ve made seven short films and two features. But yeah, it was just theater before that.
Madeline Sami: And I had acted in a few films and TV series, so I [had] mixed it up, but theater was the first thing, really. I was in a big film, it was actually the number one film in New Zealand for a long time; Sione’s Wedding. And I just saw a movie last year, called Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates or something – I watched the trailer and it was the same premise as Sione’s Wedding, but that was twelve years ago. I also ran my own TV show in New Zealand called Super City. I play different characters, did two series of that, nine characters.
Jackie van Beek: Very versatile actor. She plays male and female.
Madeleine Sami: She’s like my agent.
Jackie van Beek: I am! Madeleine’s pretty hot right now, I’m trying to convince you to sign with me.
Madeleine Sami: I just don’t think you can do anything for my career.
Jackie van Beek: We’ll go make deals in the Shake Shack.
Had y’all always wanted to transition into film or did it just sort of happen?
Madeleine Sami: I think it’s always a dream, you know? When you’re a young, budding actor, you wanna make movies.
Jackie van Beek: Yeah, as an actor I had always wanted to make movies. I had not considered writing and directing film, so I kinda fell into it by accident. I moved to Australia, and I was working up in the Northern Territory. I was teaching clown to indigenous children [who] lived on this town camp. I was working for this company […] and they called me up and asked: “do you wanna come back and do something?” And I said: “yeah!” And they said: “what about making a short film?” And I said: “yeah!” So I talked to them about what kind of story I wanted to tell, and we chose [one] that the kids generated, and suddenly I had my official film. I absolutely loved it. I just kept making them.
How’d y’all end up in What We Do in the Shadows?
Jackie van Beek: Well, we were good friends of Taika [Waititi] and Jemaine [Clement]. I’ve known Taika since high school and Jemaine since university. I auditioned for a part that was called Jackie, and given that my name is Jackie, I thought I had a fair chance–
Madeleine Sami: I can’t believe they made you audition for that, man.
Jackie van Beek: That’s okay! I was happy to audition. I was pleased to get the part, though if someone else had gotten the part and they were not called Jackie it might have stung a little. We work on each other’s projects a lot. I directed a couple television episodes of a spin-off of Shadows that Taika and Jemaine created. It was a lot of fun. It was my first TV directing job!
Madeleine Sami: Yeah, I’ve known Taika for a long time. If you’re from New Zealand, and you’re in comedy, you pretty much meet everyone. And you end up working with everyone. There’s only a small amount of people there.
Jackie van Beek: You gravitate towards the people that share your sense of humor.
Madeleine Sami: Yeah, Taika directed the first series of my TV show, Super City. We try and act in each other’s things all the time. He didn’t put us in Thor though.
Jackie van Beek: No, I didn’t even get an audition for that. Not even in the Shake Shack.
Madeleine Sami: Next Thor. Thor 5? Whatever they’re up to now.
Ragnarok: The Return.
Jackie van Beek: Yeah!
Madeleine Sami: Brown, female Thor!
Jackie van Beek: If you sign with me, I will try and get you that role.
Madeleine Sami: It’s not happening. You’re not an agent.
Jackie van Beek: I can be! I can be anything I want. I’m a woman. It’s 2018.
How was directing your first TV project?
Jackie van Beek: It was super fun. It was the first time I directed material that I hadn’t generated and I found that very liberating. It was a great first TV job for me because I was in the original movie [and] I love mockumentary. It’s done in the style of a reality cop show so I had to really embrace ugly frames, ugly camera moves, terrible lighting. I loved it. It was a wonderful first [TV] job cause they’re good friends of mine and I know the genre so well. Jemaine was directing [it] so we did a bit of a handover. It was so fun.
To pivot back to Breaker Upperers, one of the things I loved the most about the film is that it felt like a love story between two friends – there’s this rom-com structure of this fantastic friendship – do you see any dynamics, events or tensions from your own friendship reflected in the story?
Madeleine Sami: I don’t think we’ve had any friendship bust-up moments?
Jackie van Beek: Yes, but do you think we mirror the characters a little?
Madeleine Sami: Maybe. I mean, I feel like a pushover. And I feel like you’re a strong woman, with strong opinions.
Jackie van Beek: I think you’re great. We sign all types of women at my agency.
Madeleine Sami: I love that you picked up on those moments, cause that was really key and important to us. The film is about love, but it’s about unconventional love, and it doesn’t have to be the way we have traditionally seen it in the movies; romantic, between a man and a woman.
Jackie van Beek: We coined the term “Womance”. It is about a friendship.
Madeleine Sami: Yeah, you always put parts of your life, there’re probably lots of parts of [ours] in lots of the characters. I feel like I’ve definitely reached some highs and lows in my life.
Jackie van Beek: We did consciously try and create two very contrasting women. In terms of costume, we dressed ourselves very differently. We did it so that when we were side-by-side on screen, you would think: “how the hell did these two people [meet]?”
Madeleine Sami: Yeah, when we talk about all the bad relationships and the bad sex that we’ve had – it’s all sort of there.
Jackie van Beek: We’ve seen things.
To go back to Taika, I wanted to ask y’all about his involvement in the project. I felt at some points in the film, especially after James [Rolleston] showed up, that I was detecting a Taika influence. I wasn’t sure, then I saw the Executive Producer credit! It’s definitely y’all’s film, it’s a very unique vision. But I was wondering if you’ve felt influenced by his work or if you feel like some of his style might have rubbed off on you?
Jackie van Beek: I think in New Zealand, because we’re all of a similar age, we’ve grown up with similar influences. This style has kinda developed in all of us, and it’s fantastic that Taika has made [it] so popular and commercial, but it wasn’t so much influenced by his style as it is a shared sense of humor. Like, there’s also Flight of the Conchords, which is very similar in its sensibility and deadpan.
Madeleine Sami: There’s this spectrum of Kiwi humor, and we’re on there, but of a female slant. I guess it’s a movement.
Jackie van Beek: Yeah, Taika is a collaborator on the film. He did take a pass at the script, gave a few tiny bits of feedback.
Madeleine Sami: It’s funny cause he did give us a couple of suggestions that were very Taika suggestions, and we didn’t end up taking them because [it] would be amazing if Taika did that, but it didn’t quite fit what we were doing.
Jackie van Beek: He was great. He would just send us the edits and tell us: “Hey, take what you want, leave what you want. It’s your movie!”
Madeleine Sami: Yeah, he was really pushing for it to be our own movie.
Film Inquiry thanks Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami for taking the time to talk with us.
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